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Nuget - Projects unable to find references after migration to Package Reference from packages.config

I have a .Net 4.6.2 Winforms application
I have recently migrated all my projects to package reference from packages.config using the VS Tool,
After the migration certain projects are complaining that they are unable to find the references on build, when first starting VS or when a nuget restore command is ran.
The package i am trying to reference is Devexpress.Win
This has transient packages
Devexpress.Utils
Devexpress.Data
Example Problem:
Project A - Contains package reference Devexpress.Win - Builds fine
Project B - Contains package reference Devexpress.Win - Build Fails due to missing reference -
Error
error BC30652: Reference required to assembly 'DevExpress.Utils.v18.1, Version=18.1.6.0, Culture=neutral
Investigation:
On further investigation it appears like the "projects.assets.json" file is deleted from the projects obj folder when the project builds. it then has to restored by restarting VS or executing nuget restore, but is then deleted again on build.
Has anyone had this problem? im getting ready to reverse the migration on the projects but was looking for a solution first

Okay so found the issue,
Someone seemed to have added a pre-build event to the project file which was clearing the bin and obj folders before the project build
Offending code:
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
<!-- Remove obj folder -->
<RemoveDir Directories="$(BaseIntermediateOutputPath)" />
<!-- Remove bin folder -->
<RemoveDir Directories="$(BaseOutputPath)" />
</Target>

MsBuild does not find restored NuGet-Packages on Visual Studio Online

I try to build a solution stored in an external GIT-Repository on Visual Studio Online.
It has the following steps:
1: Git Restore - Works
2: NuGet Restore - Works
3: Build - Does NOT work
My first guess when looking at the logs is that MsBuild is not looking for the Packages where NuGet had stored them.
Some Lines from NuGet Restore:
2018-03-14T21:10:11.0352862Z Completed installation of AngleSharp 0.9.9
2018-03-14T21:10:11.0353230Z Adding package 'AngleSharp.0.9.9' to folder 'D:\a\1\s\packages'
2018-03-14T21:10:11.0353563Z Added package 'AngleSharp.0.9.9' to folder 'D:\a\1\s\packages'
2018-03-14T21:10:11.0354972Z Added package 'AngleSharp.0.9.9' to folder 'D:\a\1\s\packages' from source 'https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json' 'Microsoft.SharePointOnline.CSOM.16.1.7317.1200' to folder 'D:\a\1\s\packages'
Some lines from MsBuild:
018-03-14T21:10:21.2105399Z PrepareForBuild:
2018-03-14T21:10:21.2105793Z Creating directory "bin\Release\".
2018-03-14T21:10:21.2424947Z Creating directory "obj\Release\".
2018-03-14T21:10:30.3569560Z ResolveAssemblyReferences:
2018-03-14T21:10:30.3570425Z Primary reference "AngleSharp, Version=0.9.9.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=e83494dcdc6d31ea, processorArchitecture=MSIL".
2018-03-14T21:10:30.3670272Z ##[warning]C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\Microsoft.Common.CurrentVersion.targets(2041,5): Warning MSB3245: Could not resolve this reference. Could not locate the assembly "AngleSharp, Version=0.9.9.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=e83494dcdc6d31ea, processorArchitecture=MSIL". Check to make sure the assembly exists on disk. If this reference is required by your code, you may get compilation errors.
My solution/packages structure is:
....\mysolution\myproject\myproject.csproj
....\mysolution\myproject\packages.config
Current Config:
So how can I change the Nuget and/or msbuild-behavior to make this work?
(Update): To clear this up: I have this problem with every package. They all are in the packages.config, each one is downloaded from Nuget, but each one also isn't found from MsBuild
(Update2) The Commands generated are currently the following:
NUGET:
D:\a\_tool\NuGet\4.4.1\x64\nuget.exe restore D:\a\1\s\AweCsomeO365\packages.config -PackagesDirectory D:\a\1\a\packages -Verbosity Detailed -NonInteractive -ConfigFile D:\a\1\Nuget\tempNuGet_22.config
MSBUILD:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\msbuild.exe" "D:\a\1\s\AweCsomeO365\AweCsomeO365.csproj" /nologo /nr:false /dl:CentralLogger,"D:\a\_tasks\VSBuild_(GUID)\1.126.0\ps_modules\MSBuildHelpers\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.DistributedTask.MSBuild.Logger.dll";"RootDetailId=(GUID)|SolutionDir=D:\a\1\s\AweCsomeO365"*ForwardingLogger,"D:\a\_tasks\VSBuild_(GUID)\1.126.0\ps_modules\MSBuildHelpers\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.DistributedTask.MSBuild.Logger.dll" /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:WebPublishMethod=Package /p:PackageAsSingleFile=true /p:SkipInvalidConfigurations=true /p:PackageLocation=D:\a\1\a /p:ReferencePath=D:\a\1\a\packages /p:platform="anyCPU" /p:configuration="Release" /p:VisualStudioVersion="15.0" /p:_MSDeployUserAgent="VSTS_(GUID)_build_4_22
I replaced the GUIDs; tempNuGetConfig is something that seems to be generated by VSTS dynamically
Still. even if the log states that nuget stores the packages
Added package 'AngleSharp.0.9.9' to folder 'D:\a\1\a\packages'
MsBuild does not seem to find them there:
For SearchPath "D:\a\1\a\packages".
2018-03-16T13:57:42.4625155Z Considered "D:\a\1\a\packages\AngleSharp.winmd", but it didn't exist.
2018-03-16T13:57:42.4625456Z Considered "D:\a\1\a\packages\AngleSharp.dll", but it didn't exist.
2018-03-16T13:57:42.4625730Z Considered "D:\a\1\a\packages\AngleSharp.exe", but it didn't exist.
VSTS-Configurationvalues:
MsBuild: /p:ReferencePath=$(Build.StagingDirectory)\packages
Nuget-DestiantionDirectory: $(Build.StagingDirectory)\packages
(update3): I have no solution file, but only a csproj-file in that repository

The issue was that inside the project there was a hintpath for the packages directing to a location that was not within the GIT-Repository (and shouldn't):
<Reference Include="AngleSharp, Version=0.9.9.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=e83494dcdc6d31ea, processorArchitecture=MSIL">
<HintPath>..\..\AweCsome365Test\packages\AngleSharp.0.9.9\lib\net45\AngleSharp.dll</HintPath>
</Reference>
My original approach was to define a target directory to NuGet and a Source Directory for MSBuild to use another location to the packages that both understand.
The issue though (as far as I understand) is, that NuGet always creates a subfolder-structure "./packages/{PackagesName}/lib/net45/{file}" and MSBuild does not look recursivly when setting "./packages" as source path.
The above is just an explanation for the future guy running into the same problem
So my solution was to mimic the local behavior for nuget and changing the output directory to match the HintPath (even if there is no "AweCsome365Test")-directory in the repository:
(I will leave this question open as this solution smells fishy. If anyone has a better solution that allows to chain nuget and msbuild without using the HintPath I am happily willing to spend my bounty on it)

I believe that your MSBuild "ReferencePath" parameter is not correct. you are telling MS Build that all your references (nuget packages and their dlls included) are going to be located at "D:\a\1\a\packages" but that is not where nuget will download and store the packages and dlls. Nuget will download and extract files into D:\a\1\a\packages\{packageName}\{version}\lib\{environment}\package.dll. I think you need to remove that last parameter (ReferencePath) from your MSBuild arguments.
I also noticed that your PackageLocation parameter is not the same as the destination for the NuGet restore task, do you need to add the "\packages" to that parameter like the destination in the restore task?

Change the nuget restore destination directory to $(Build.SourcesDirectory)\packages and remove the msbuild ReferencePath parameter.

The answers here are largely right. However it's worth noting another cause that can result in this behaviour. My toolchain was using Azure DevOps which is basically the same as Visual Studio Online, just a few years later.
Cause:
Reference your project from a different solution (cross-repo), for instance for debugging purposes
Update NuGet references in the problematic project from the external place you referenced it from
What this does is make use of the solution location for packages when the package gets installed.
For .Net core/standard projects, using Update-Package -reinstall appears to fix things. However, for .Net Framework projects, even though packages.json may get rebuilt, the <HintPath /> node in the .csproj gets left as is - with a reference to a packages folder that Azure will never create.
Simple fix:
Right click on the offending solutions locally, and choose Unload
Right click on the unloaded project, choose edit .csproj
Find any hintpaths that look like ../../OtherRepo/packages (the slash in use may vary), and change them to ../packages
Confirm the solution does build locally still
Push the changes to Azure, and cross your fingers
This approach will fix the issue caused by consolidating / updating packages from the wrong place rather than requiring a change to the build pipeline to spoof that location (which in may case, wasn't working very well either).

Nuget & dotnet on linux - using/package a provided package

perhaps Im getting old but Im really confused on how to use a nupkg on Linux. Resolving and installing dependencies/adding libs for C is easier for me (never would thought I would say so).
I got a package from a vendor (YYYYY_linux.3.0.77.nupkg) and want to run their example code (version for windows with visual studio worked out of the box) but they told me their linux pack would also work.
What I did:
dotnet init
... coding ...
dotnet restore
dotnet build
/home/tobiass/code/XXXX/Program.cs(27,11): error CS0246: The type or
namespace name 'YYYYY' could not be found (are you missing a using
directive or an assembly reference?)
Afterwards I tried two things:
1.
I edited NuGet.Config
dotnet restore
The nupkg shows up as a feed.
But I still get the same error.
2.
I also tried to create a local feed
mono nuget.exe add ../YYYYYYY_linux.3.0.77.nupkg -source ./
but it always results in
The requested feature is not implemented.
What is the correct way on Linux to add a library? Must it be also a part of project.json? Some config in .nuget?
Best,
Tobias

I suspect your project is not a .NET Core project so you should be using nuget.exe instead of dotnet.
So first I would take a look at the example code. Does it have a .csproj file? Does it have a packages.config file? Does it have a packages folder with the .nupkg file in it already? If so then nothing needs to be done and it should just compile.
From the error message one or more of the above are not correct. If the project file (.csproj) has references to the files in the NuGet package and there is an existing packages.config file then all you need to do is restore the package. To do that you need to put the NuGet package somewhere so it can be restored. You could simply just copy the .nupkg file into ~/.local/share/NuGet/Cache/ which is the machine cache for all NuGet packages and then restore it into the project by running nuget restore Path/To/YourSolution.sln.
If the project does not have a packages.config file then you would need to install it into the project. The simplest way would be to use MonoDevelop. That has built-in support for adding NuGet packages to projects.
Otherwise you could just unzip the .nupkg file and copy the files where they need to go into the solution's packages directory based on the information in the .csproj file.

Reference Microsoft.VisualStudio.QualityTools.UnitTestFramework for CI build

I have created a C# test project in VS2015 RC. it builds locally but when i attempt to build on our CI build server (TeamCity) it fails with errors:
UnitTest1.cs(2,17): error CS0234: The type or namespace name
'VisualStudio' does not exist in the namespace 'Microsoft' (are you
missing an assembly reference?)
[... .Tests.csproj]
UnitTest1.cs(9,10): error CS0246: The type or namespace name
'TestMethod' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or
an assembly reference?)
[... .Tests.csproj]
Clearly this is because the assembly containing these namespaces (Microsoft.VisualStudio.QualityTools.UnitTestFramework) is not on the build server; on my local machine it resides at C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\PublicAssemblies\Microsoft.VisualStudio.QualityTools.UnitTestFramework.dll.
I could copy the assembly into my solution so that it becomes part of the codebase but manually moving files feels like a bit of an inelegant hack. I searched around on nuget and found http://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.VisualStudio.QualityTools.UnitTestFramework/ which I figured would do the trick, but installing that package failed with:
Install-Package : Could not install package
'Microsoft.VisualStudio.QualityTools.UnitTestFramework 11.0.50727.1'.
You are trying to install this package into a project that targets
'.NETFramework, Version=v4.5.2', but the package does not contain any
assembly references or content files that are compatible with that
framework
What's my best option of solving this? I'm surprised that creating a test project in VS2015 does not automatically include all the dependencies that I need, though perhaps I'm being naive (I'm something of a fledgling dot netter).

The answer is similar to option 1 in eng.augusto's answer.
Microsoft doesn't provide NuGet for the latest version of Microsoft.VisualStudio.QualityTools.UnitTestFramework,
but rather supplies it as a part of Visual Studio
(normally at C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\PublicAssemblies\Microsoft.VisualStudio.QualityTools.UnitTestFramework.dll)
I created the folder Microsoft.VisualStudio.QualityTools as a subfolder of my solution and copied:
Microsoft.VisualStudio.QualityTools.UnitTestFramework.dll
Microsoft.VisualStudio.QualityTools.UnitTestFramework.xml
The files should be added to source control (even if DLLs are usually ignored).
Then I changed references in my Test.csproj to refer to a new location.

Hmm I have some ideas, so choose the one that best fits your needs
A simple answer should be mark the DLL to copy local and use a folder like Assemblies in the same folder of the solution and references "Microsoft.VisualStudio.QualityTools.UnitTestFramework.dll"
Install Visual Studio in your build server. Sounds nuts but it's the closest to "developer machine" that you have.
Install the DLL in the GAC so you don't have to bother with this.
Fix the NuGet package (Adding a reference for the .NET Framework version) and use it.
Downgrade your .NET Framework version so you can use the NuGet package.
Create your own NuGet server! (and add the reference of the DLLs you need).
IMHO I'd choose the first answer, because it seems to be the "best way" to use NuGet to resolve all your packages problems but you are using a DLL that you don't know if it should be trusted.
In system used in "old" languages like C, or C++ it's common you download the source code and the libraries needed for the code to run so I do not think the NuGet package it's the best solution.
Using the first option you always have the same version and could check the MD5 of the file and know exactly what is running in your build server.
Maybe the real best option should be 6. When you use your own NuGet server to handle your DLLs making your live more awesome and trustable.

For projects created in VS 2017. Adding Nuget package Microsoft.VisualStudio.QualityTools.UnitTestFramework.Updated allows to build unit test projects on CI without VS installed on build server:

I was having this issue when trying to use MSBuild on our dev server via our CI/CD process after I was asked to uninstall VS2013 from our dev server by our IT team.
In my case in my build output there were a few lines with the word Considered. What this means is that the build is considering those folders for locations where the file may be located. One of those lines was as follows:
Considered "C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.5\Microsoft.VisualStudio.QualityTools.UnitTestFramework.dll", but it didn't exist.
I copied Microsoft.VisualStudio.QualityTools.UnitTestFramework.dll from my local machine to that folder on the dev server and the error went away.

Of course Microsoft does a s...t job. To fix this, you need to copy the dll's to some convinint lication and reference them from your ptoject .csproj file.
<HintPath>..\packages\Microsoft.VisualStudio.QualityTools.UnitTestFramework.dll</HintPath>
</Reference>
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<Reference Include="QualityTools-Fakes">
<HintPath>..\packages\Microsoft.QualityTools.Testing.Fakes.dll</HintPath>
</Reference>
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
I don't understand why when we add this from VSudio it does not update the same file instead no one has an idea what it does. In Java you have a single file pom.xml or build.gradle, nothing else. In C# there is all sorts of stuff which adds no value but confusion.

System.Data.SQLite from NuGet, interop dll not copied to output directory

I installed System.Data.SQLite Core (x86/x64) from NuGet. It built without warnings but threw System.DllNotFoundException regarding SQLite.Interop.dll. I rigged my projects to copy the SQLite.Interop.dll from under the NuGet package's directory to the output directory, and now it runs without the exception.
Why didn't the NuGet package configure my projects to put the appropriate interop dll in the output directory? It seems like it should be able to do that.
I'm new to interop and I inherited this codebase, which previously referenced System.Data.SQLite.dll directly by path. I switched to NuGet to get rid of warnings about a mismatch between the processor architecture of the project vs System.Data.SQLite. I'm trying to build all projects as AnyCPU.

Copy this to your project file:
<PropertyGroup>
<ContentSQLiteInteropFiles>true</ContentSQLiteInteropFiles>
<CopySQLiteInteropFiles>false</CopySQLiteInteropFiles>
<CleanSQLiteInteropFiles>false</CleanSQLiteInteropFiles>
<CollectSQLiteInteropFiles>false</CollectSQLiteInteropFiles>
</PropertyGroup>
Source: SQLite.Interop.dll files does not copy to project output path when required by referenced project

In my case, the problem was the fact that I was using SQLite inside a class library project that was then used by another WPF (gui type) project.
Solved the SQL.Interop.dll not getting copied to output directory, by using the following Post-Build command, inside Project Properties -> Build Events:
xcopy "$(SolutionDir)packages\System.Data.SQLite.Core.1.0.101.0\build\net451\x86\SQLite.Interop.dll" "$(OutputDir)" /y /f
/y overwrites
/f displays actual filenames being copied

I thought this was happening to, as I was copying the files from my output folder to another location when I deployed them. I missed the fact that the interop files WERE being copied, but they are copied to x64 and x86 folders within your output folder.
If you run msbuild in debug on the project, you can look for references to the CopySQLiteInteropFiles target to ensure that it is running.

With the System.Data.SQLite.Core NuGet package version 1.0.104, I had the same problem as #Eternal21 and #Patrick. That is, project A references SQLite and project B references A where SQlite.Interop.dll is not copied into the output directory of B.
I found a solution that solves the trouble in project A rather than B which is a more robust solution since it fixes the problem once for all future projects refering to A. The .targets file of the NuGet package contains the following section:
<ItemGroup Condition="'$(ContentSQLiteInteropFiles)' != '' And
'$(ContentSQLiteInteropFiles)' != 'false' And
'#(SQLiteInteropFiles)' != ''">
<Content Include="#(SQLiteInteropFiles)">
<Link>%(RecursiveDir)%(FileName)%(Extension)</Link>
<CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
</Content>
</ItemGroup>
This section adds SQLite.Interop.dll as a reference that has to be copied to project A's output and also to the output of refering projects (like B). But the MSBuild property ContentSQLiteInteropFiles is undefined by default (I don't know why) disabling the reference by the first condition. To enable it, I added the following line to a PropertyGroup element of projects A's .csproj file:
<ContentSQLiteInteropFiles>true</ContentSQLiteInteropFiles>
Please note that this line must prececde the Import element for the .targets file of the NuGet package.

In my case the SQL.Interop.dll was not copied by Nuget in any way, manually put the right version of the dll in the x86 and x64 folder solved the issue.
If you've installed Sqlite from Nuget, you can find the SQL.Interop.dll in this folder (for .NET 4.0)
PROJECT_FOLDER\packages\System.Data.SQLite.Core.1.0.*.*\build\net40

In my case the myProject.csproj file did not have the System.Data.SQLite.Core.targets defined. I added the following line and both x64 and x86 versions of SQLite.Interop.dll are now copied for all build targets.
<Import Project="..\packages\System.Data.SQLite.Core.1.0.98.1\build\net45\System.Data.SQLite.Core.targets" Condition="Exists('..\packages\System.Data.SQLite.Core.1.0.98.1\build\net45\System.Data.SQLite.Core.targets')" />
I'm not sure what will happen when the NuGet package for System.Data.SQLite.Core gets updated and if the package path will need to be manually altered.

in my case using NuGet for installing SQLite and still I need to add manually SQliteinterop.dll as a Resource. Then I build muy proyect and when I publish it works fine. (Working with x86 configuration)

I added
<PropertyGroup>
<ContentSQLiteInteropFiles>false</ContentSQLiteInteropFiles>
<CopySQLiteInteropFiles>false</CopySQLiteInteropFiles>
<CleanSQLiteInteropFiles>false</CleanSQLiteInteropFiles>
<CollectSQLiteInteropFiles>false</CollectSQLiteInteropFiles>
</PropertyGroup>
In the csproj of the project that references the nuget package. This part needs to be above the 'Import' of the 'System.Data.SQLite.Core.targets'.
Then, added the following to the csproj-file, so that the x64-version of the 'SQLite.Interop.dll' is placed in the bin folder.
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="..\packages\System.Data.SQLite.Core.1.0.111.0\build\net46\x64\SQLite.Interop.dll">
<CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
</Content>
</ItemGroup>
Although this statement needs to be changed when the nuget package is updated.

None of the answers above seemed to work for me, perhaps because I am on VS2015, but that struck me as a good reason to add my own solution to this problem.
My specific situation is the same as #Eternal21 - I have a WPF UI consuming a client library which is the one that has SQLite added to it via nuget. And, yes, the problem was that the Interop.dll was not copied to the startup application (i.e the WPF UI that does not have SQLite installed).
The solution of simply adding SQLite to the WPF project using nuget is a quick and easy fix if you are in a hurry.
My slightly heavy-handed solution uses XCOPY but does have the advantage of copying both the x86 and the x64 directories and also copes with Debug and Release builds. Its downside is that it contains hard-coded project names. I can see how you could use a macro to get rid of the first one but I couldn't easily see how to get rid of the second, so you would have to change it manually if the project name changed (but this is fairly rare).
My solution is to use these XCOPY commands in the post-build of the startup project:
xcopy $(SolutionDir)DALProject\bin\$(ConfigurationName)\x64\SQLite.Interop.dll $(SolutionDir)WPFProject\bin\$(ConfigurationName)\x64\*.* /C /F /S /E /Y
xcopy $(SolutionDir)DALProject\bin\$(ConfigurationName)\x86\SQLite.Interop.dll $(SolutionDir)WPFProject\bin\$(ConfigurationName)\x86\*.* /C /F /S /E /Y
/C - Continues copying even if error (maybe this is not needed).
/F - Displays full paths of files being copied (could be omitted to clean-up build output).
/S - Copies subdirectories (which was the only way I could get it to create the /x86 and /x64 folders).
/E - Copies directories and subdirectories (maybe duplicates /S).
/Y - Suppresses prompt if destination file already exists.
I set this to run only on successful build and it works a treat for me. Hope it helps someone.

I have a DLL project that uses the SQLite package from nuget but a test project for it would always raise the DLL not found exception.
The simplest solution I found was to add the SQLite nuget package to the test project too.